Security forces outside Parliament after the attack. (Reuters file picture)

Islamabad, March 7 (PTI): In the first such statement from the Pakistani establishment, former ISI chief General (retd) Javed Ashraf Qazi has blamed the Jaish-e-Mohammed for the terrorist strike on the Indian Parliament in 2001.

Qazi also held the banned militant group responsible for the recent suicide attacks on President Pervez Musharraf and the deaths of “thousands” of Kashmiris.

Participating in a debate in the Senate on Musharraf’s address to the joint sitting of Parliament, Qazi said: “We must not be afraid of admitting that Jaish was involved in the deaths of thousands of innocent Kashmiris, bombing the Indian Parliament, (journalist) Daniel Pearl’s murder and attempts on President Musharraf’s life.”

India has blamed both Jaish and another Pakistan-based militant outfit, the Lashkar-e-Toiba, for the attack on Parliament. The two organisations were subsequently banned by Musharraf.

Qazi, who served as a senior minister in Musharraf’s military government, said both these outfits have harmed the “Kashmir struggle” the most.

He blamed sectarian group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi for the attacks on Shias in Pakistan.

Both Jaish and Jhangvi were products of a campaign of hatred, Qazi said, adding that “they are producing zombies to kill their Muslim brothers”.

Referring to the attack on the minority Shias by Sunni extremist organisations like Jhangvi, Qazi said Pakistan’s intelligence agencies were aware of about 10,000 religious institutions that were inciting the two groups against each other.

He denied Opposition allegations that the army alone was the architect of Pakistan’s Afghan Policy and had supported the Taliban. Former interior minister Naseerullah Khan Babar of the Pakistan People’s Party, led by Benazir Bhutto, had first contacted the Afghan commanders, he said.

“I saluted him for that because it was a correct decision at that time,” said Qazi, who described the Taliban as products of circumstances.